The Persuaders

I believe we are headed toward a future that is very uncertain in terms of politics, marketing research, and the overall state of the economy. It seems it has been relatively easy to convince the American people that times will continue to change for the better, technology will improve, and morals and ethics will rebound to what they once meant in the mid to late 20th century. While this may sound good on paper, to today’s average young adult this ideology is unrealistic. Companies have shown that they will pay exorbitant amounts of money to learn just what it is that captivates consumers and learn what drives their purchases and desires. As long as the times keep changing and generations become more diversified there will always be a new demographic to better understand. It is understandably out of our reach to know just how far the techniques of persuasion might go but my guess it that there will be a point when the amount of research that we conduct today on marketing will become obsolete due to a lack of information to analyze. It would be easy to disagree with my reasoning since marketing research is a science and science is rarely complete but I do think that there is so far that you can reach into the psyche of teenagers and young adults. I think there will be a point where we understand how difficult it is to comprehend adolescent’s decisions and reason because they are trying to figure out themselves on multiple levels.

Other than the obvious theory of consumerism and capitalism going hand in hand for almost a decade, Americans have become so wrapped up in their world of instant gratification from watching television vs. reading because we can receive the information at a rapid rate with less effort. There may not be a specific characteristic that Americans have that makes us more susceptible to various advertisements and messages but I believe it is more of an epidemic that has spread throughout the United States making us believe that we need much more to survive than we actually do. I think we bring all of the advertising be a subjected to on ourselves because we listen to it in the first place. In some ways we have given up our ability to think for ourselves or to see through messages that are meant to portray a distinctive thought in our minds as unrealistic or a fallacy. Our own laziness has perpetuated corporations desire to better understand what drives us and our reptilian brains. Whenever you buy a product you are associating yourself with that brand whether you realize you’re doing it or not. The video, The Persuaders, explored the idea that American’s are seeking and finding a sort of identity in buying or joining a brand or product. People of all ages but especially teens are in a struggle to learn who they are and learn what will make them “cool”. This is where the philosophy of the Merchants of Cool ties into The Persuaders. We will go to extreme lengths to be accepted by our peers even if it means following a path or using a product we don’t get complete enjoyment from.

The common elements in the persuasion or selling strategies of advertising and marketing is repetition and the creation of a connection with products that we are compelled to need. Consumers strive to create an emotional or empirical connection that the consumer can relate to and will then hopefully become loyal. This connection can be made through television, magazines, radio, or word of mouth. The majority of the stuff we accumulate over a lifetime is mostly unnecessary to our existence and over time serves less and less meaning. In an attempt to avoid the trickiness of advertisers and their campaigns we must be very self-aware of what we are being exposed to on a regular basis. It would be a good idea to frequently check in with yourself especially when you are making a purchase and as yourself, do I really need this? What benefit will this product provide me? Is the benefit worth the cost? You could begin this by not watching or listening to the advertisements that are playing in between television programs and radio shows. It would be naive to think that the average person could be subjected to the amount of advertising that they are and believe that they could filter what they hear on their own. We need to demonstrate autonomy at all times by blocking out what we are faced with in terms of advertising and the massages they portray in an attempt to make us believe we need superfluous products.